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It's a change of pace from Brubaker's run, so that's refreshing. I do like the idea of Arnim Zola taking a whole alternate dimension and turning it into his own personal petri dish, and hope Remender does more with that angle. The art's ok.

One weird thing that threw me off, and its minor, but was when Ian called Cap "Papa". That was laying it on a bit thick.

Victorian Squid wrote:I think mainstream comics writers, pushed to produce more and more content for Marvel especially, have been polluted by how much media they themselves consume, movies, television, video games, etc.

Matt Fraction is another good example, writing a Doctor Who rip-off to the point of writing Reed declaring everything has gone 'pear-shaped'.

I agree with this post. It's something I've often thought myself, lately, and I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks this is true.

MikeinLA wrote:It's a change of pace from Brubaker's run, so that's refreshing. I do like the idea of Arnim Zola taking a whole alternate dimension and turning it into his own personal petri dish, and hope Remender does more with that angle. The art's ok.

One weird thing that threw me off, and its minor, but was when Ian called Cap "Papa". That was laying it on a bit thick.

I think he is supposed to be cloned from Cap. Ian has a sister. He also grows super fast. He was a baby in issue 1 and now he's looks like a 5 year old.

Keb wrote:I think he is supposed to be cloned from Cap. Ian has a sister. He also grows super fast. He was a baby in issue 1 and now he's looks like a 5 year old.

I guess that's possible. I just found it weird the kid would call him "Papa". Unless there's some kind of weird memory implanting thing going on, everything Ian knows comes from Cap, and I don't think Cap would tell the kid to refer to him as that, even if he is acting as a surrogate father figure to him.

MikeinLA wrote:I guess that's possible. I just found it weird the kid would call him "Papa". Unless there's some kind of weird memory implanting thing going on, everything Ian knows comes from Cap, and I don't think Cap would tell the kid to refer to him as that, even if he is acting as a surrogate father figure to him.

Well, kids need parents, and since Cap is the only person he knows (only person not trying to kill/capture him he knows), and he's an older guy who is protecting him, he naturally identifies him as his Dad. Of course, I don't know where he learned the word "papa." So, I think that's your point--why is he calling him "Papa," of all things. I agree that I can't picture Cap telling him to call him that. Maybe it is a genetic memory or something strange like that.

Victorian Squid wrote:I think mainstream comics writers, pushed to produce more and more content for Marvel especially, have been polluted by how much media they themselves consume, movies, television, video games, etc.

Matt Fraction is another good example, writing a Doctor Who rip-off to the point of writing Reed declaring everything has gone 'pear-shaped'.

In a way, it's nothing new. On the other hand, there's something to be said for, say, musicians who don't listen to every new hit that comes out while they are writing and recording their own music.

I think they are aware, or if not the editors are aware of it. I find that Marvel wants to pull in more readers so they endorse stories that mimic or are similar to other popular narratives. Plus when they let those same creators pay homage to stories of the past, it also pulls in the old readers. I'm okay with it if its done well. Its not a bad technique but a lot of times the stories are garbage. I find that a lot of Marvel writers just reuse plots from the silver age and rehash the damn things to fit this more television styled storytelling method. That's what I have a problem with.

Not a fan at all. I give Rick Remender credit for doing something drastically different than what Brubaker was doing but it just doesn't work for me. This might have worked for another character, but the setting doesn't really feel like a Cap book to me. And I find all the alien monsters to be sort of boring as antagonists. There's nothing interesting about them. They just feel like generic comic book bad guys.

Some of the story elements were pretty bad too, like Cap contemplating suicide. Very out of character. I don't see the guy who went through the worst war in history, been up against insurmountable odds over and over again and stood up to an Infinity Gauntlet wielding Thanos thinking of offing himself because he's stranded somewhere. Seemed like Remender wanted to get a little introspective there but he completely lost sight of the character he was writing and it just fell flat and seemed ridiculous.

I guess Remender is trying to go for a cosmic Lone Wolf & Cub kind of thing, but I feel like I already read this a couple years ago in Cable. And there's nothing about Ian that really makes me care about him other than he's a kid and you don't want to see bad stuff happen to kids. There's probably more to him, but I don't really care enough to keep reading to find out what it is. The book just doesn't have enough of a hook for me.

Also, I hate John Romita Jr's art. Everything always looks blocky and distorted to me. I find his art distracting.

When I read about what Remender wanted to do with this book, I had a feeling I wouldn't like it, but I gave it a shot hoping it would impress me. Unfortunately it's just not my thing and I couldn't find enough to like about the book in order to keep reading it. I think I ordered #3 but I decided not to order anything beyond that.